Time To Change Tradition Of Triple Crown's 5-Week Format

Anonymous / Associated Press

FILE - In this June 9, 1973 file photo, jockey Ron Turcotte hangs on as Secretariat romps along the final stretch just before the finish line and a victory in the 105th running of the Belmont Stakes, winning the Triple Crown at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

FILE - In this June 9, 1973 file photo, jockey Ron Turcotte hangs on as Secretariat romps along the final stretch just before the finish line and a victory in the 105th running of the Belmont Stakes, winning the Triple Crown at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

As Penny Chenery and Ron Turcotte spoke of Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon, these fingers found the YouTube clip of the 1973 Belmont Stakes. Big Red didn't drive for the finish line that Saturday, Turcotte corrected a caller, he cruised to his legendary 31-length triumph.

As savage, as inexorable, as poetic as it appeared, Turcotte insisted Secretariat could have taken a few clicks off the record time of 2:24 for the mile and a half, too, if he had been pushed in any way.

"I was just watching in awe," Secretariat's owner Chenery, 93, said.

"I guess I was the coolest of all," Turcotte said. "I knew what was under me."

And what was under Secretariat's jockey?

"The greatest horse of all time."

Chills ran down my back as Turcotte said those six words, just as they had during a similar NTRA conference call last year with the seven living principals of the last three Triple Crown champions. As jockey Steve Cauthen spoke in 2014 of Affirmed's delicious three-race rivalry with Alydar, these same fingers found the YouTube clip of the 1978 Belmont.

"One of the greatest races of all time," Cauthen said as California Chrome was about to take another failed shot at the first Triple Crown since Affirmed. "Affirmed pushed Alydar and Alydar pushed Affirmed to be the best they could be. It was as good as it gets."

You could taste the romance in their recollection. Not surprisingly, nobody on the 2014 teleconference wanted the Triple Crown's five-week format changed. They are tied to their memories. And as American Pharoah prepared for the 14th shot at a Triple Crown since Affirmed — the ninth since 1997 — nobody's mind changed. It's supposed to be tough, they kept repeating, do not change it.

"If you make it too easy," Chenery said, "it will lose its validity."

In an unfortunate rant after California Chrome's fourth-place finish, owner Steve Coburn accused the owners of Belmont winner Tonalist and others who refused to run in all three events as "taking the coward's way out." Before he eventually apologized, Coburn said plenty more, including telling Yahoo Sports, "They're a bunch of goddamn cheaters."

Jim Hill, owner of 1977 Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew, said he had an immediate reaction to Coburn: "I said this guy hasn't been 100 yards out of a cow pasture. He just didn't understand what racing is all about."

Last year, former Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas pushed for a format change that would see the Kentucky Derby remain the first Saturday in May, but the Preakness pushed to the first weekend in June and the Belmont the first weekend in July. Given the evolution of the breed and 21st century training schedules, the proposal made some real sense and it gained a degree of traction in the racing industry. That momentum appears to have largely diminished over the past year. Even American Pharoah trainer Bob Baffert, who is handling his fourth of the nine would-Triple Crown titlists since 1997, said after the Kentucky Derby not to change the format.

Fine. Just don't toss around the word tradition. Cauthen said it won't count if you change the format. Chenery said it will invalidate all the records. The fact, of course, is these Triple Crown champions from the Seventies are the only three of 11 Triple Crown champions to win under a format that began in 1969.

Joe Namath's Super Bowl victory happened before the format change. So did Carl Yastrzemski's baseball Triple Crown. This isn't Red Grange and Babe Ruth getting sold to the Yankees. It's 1969! Richard Nixon was president, not Andrew Johnson, who was in the White House when the first Belmont of 147 was run in 1867.

The races have been all over the place. The Preakness has been run 11 times before the Derby. The Belmont has been run 11 times before the Preakness. As documented in the Paulick Report, Gallant Fox won the 1930 Preakness on a Friday night, eight days before the Derby, and the Belmont was three weeks after the Preakness. Sir Barton won the 1919 Preakness on a Wednesday, four days after the Derby, and four weeks before the Belmont. The span has been between 29 and 45 days, and as late as 1968, the span was only 21 days.

Citation won the Triple Crown in 1948 when the Preakness was two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont was four weeks after the Preakness. Of course, Citation also won the Jersey Stakes between the latter two races.

So let's not put this current format as some sacred tradition. The American League went to the designated hitter and baseball wild-card playoff teams. The NHL, hidebound to Canadian tradition, added layers of playoff series. Traditions evolve. Nobody's looking to ban mint juleps at the Derby.

You know how many of the 11 horses expected to run in the Belmont on June 6 will have run all three races? One. American Pharoah. That doesn't seem right. Seven will have run the Derby and Belmont, and two, like Tonalist last year, haven't run in either.

There was a 25-year drought between Citation and Secretariat. That is child's play compared to the current 37-year drought. That's too long. Yes, if not for bad luck or freak circumstance or jockey error on sweeping Big Sandy, a few of those nine horses since 1997 certainly could have won. There are some heartbreaking what ifs. Yet it's not necessarily the 37 years alone that bothers me. It's the developed pattern.

In 2000, Commendable became the first Derby finisher to skip the Preakness and return to take the Belmont. The last nine Belmont winners haven't run in the Preakness. Since 2003, Afleet Alex is the only Belmont winner who has raced in all three legs.

The hard truth is even if American Pharoah wins the Belmont, breeding is still a problem. So is Lasix. Until they are addressed, I remain in favor of more time between the Triple Crown races.

"It has to have a lot to do with it," Seattle Slew trainer Billy Turner said when asked if breeding is the reason for no Triple Crown winners. "Look at the fields of horses. They run fewer times as 2-year-olds. They have fewer starts going into the Triple Crown races. It's not because the trainers train them that way. The horses can't take any more. Right now, more horses are being bred for market than they are for racing. When you're breeding for market, you're taking the money and letting the next guy worry about if the horse makes it or not.

"The old families, when they bred a horse, they knew they were going to keep it running. Horses that had infirmities, such as bleeding or poor bone quality, it didn't make it into the breeding shed. It was an entirely different ballgame."

This is a different breed, sleeker and faster and not as durable. In 1975, according to Bill Finley of ESPN, the average number of starts a horse made a year was 10.23, marginally different from 10.91 in 1950. In 1980, the number suddenly dropped to 9.2. In 1995, it was 7.7. In 2008, it was 6.2 and has hung around there since.

Before the Preakness, American Pharoah hadn't run with fewer than 20 days between starts. Secretariat had raced with as few as 10 days rest before the 1973 Derby. So had Seattle Slew. Turner said he trained Slew harder than ever before the Belmont, working him at distances unheard of now. Slew demanded the work or he'd jump out of his skin. And look at Citation. He won the 1948 Derby Trial only four days before winning the Derby. They'd put a trainer in jail if he did that to a prized 3-year-old now.

The decreasing numbers correspond to the use of Lasix, with New York finally relenting to its use in 1995. Lasix, a diuretic, is administered to prevent bleeding, although there are studies that question its effectiveness. Lasix causes dehydration. Lasix causes significant weight loss and necessitates additional recovery time.

"New York was doing just fine [before 1995]," Turner said. "But they bowed to the pressure. I think they're sorry they did it now.Of course, Lasix takes a lot out of them. It has side effects that aren't that much talked about. If you took it out, it wouldn't hurt at all. It would help it."

There were record crowds of 170,513 at the Derby and 131,680 at the Preakness this year. Although the Preakness TV numbers were down slightly, the Derby numbers on NBC were the highest for a Derby in 23 years. America loves horse racing for three to four days a year and that's not likely to change. Casino gambling has seen to that. Those who follow it for 365 days know long shots (Sarava, etc.) can win the Belmont as easily as the favorites. The numbers say American Pharoah will win the Triple Crown. Logic says Frosted or Materiality will break Pharoah's heart.